Also known as "Inception Flashback", a flashback within a flashback occurs when a character recounts an event in which he/she also flashbacks into an even earlier event within the flashback. Yep, it's confusing.

These types of flashbacks are used primarily in popular anime/manga to build suspense or burn episode time. Bleach, in particular, uses this trope almost religiously. Do this a lot of times in a row, and you have a Nested Story.

Invoked in Naruto, which had flashbacks happen every so often between characters. Occasionally, the characters will overlap flashbacks, causing this to occur.

Episode 4 of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid starts the second half with Kobayashi viewing the aftermath of an incredibly violent dodgeball game before she flashes back to how they got to that point. During the flashback Kanna tells everybody how Saikawa had challenged a group of boys to a game of dodgeball even earlier in the day.

Comic Books

Issue three of Bad Guys revisits the team's training period. During then, Hunter has several flashbacks to her own past. The artist uses a different style for Hunter's flashbacks to indicate which flashback is which.

In Last Orders, Ray frequently remembers a conversation with Amy while they sat on a bench. During this flashback, the two would have flashbacks of their own during their conversation.

In the remake of The Anthropophagus Beast, Nikos, in his journal recalled being lost at sea with his wife, and his dead daughter.

Ghosts of Mars: The movie opens with the lone survivor of a mission to transport a dangerous prisoner from a mining colony being found by Mars authorities, then she tells what happened to the government council in flashback. During the mission, after splitting up to investigate, one of her comrades suddenly shows up with three survivors from the colony, and he explains how he found them in another flashback. When he asks them what happened to the colony, this triggers another flashback where they explain how they inadvertently dug up the Martian ghosts.

Homecoming is structures as a Whole Episode Flashback from Lee's perspective as his troop transport approaches New York harbor after returning from World War II. Yet somehow we still get a flashback-within-a-flashback from his wife Penny, as she remembers how they first met.

The Phantom Carriage has three narrative layers. The main story surrounding Sister Edit and David Holm, the story David Holm tells his two follow drunkards in the cemetery about Georges and within that frame there's Georges' tale about The Grim Reaper.

In The Revenant, the hero's Dark and Troubled Past of his wife being killed by military officers and his son being badly burned during the raid, is explored in flashbacks and dream sequences.

In the first Saw, a flashback occurs when Dr. Gordon recalls being taken in for questioning by the police. While in the station, he watches Amanda, the only survivor of one of Jigsaw's traps, tell the police about her kidnapping and torture. This in turn leads to a flashback from her perspective, after which we return to Dr. Gordon in the present.

"Octopussy", the Ian FlemingJames Bond short story, opens with the central character reflecting on events earlier that day, when Bond came to his Jamaica home to arrest him for murder, where he recalls the circumstances in the last days of WWII where he did the deed.

Most of Black Legion is Khayon telling the tale of the eponymous warband to his captors, so when he dwells on what happened earlier, this is the result.

In Malodrax, Lysander's flashbacks about his first time on the eponymous planet are interwined with accounts of Inquisitor Corvin, who's been there even earlier.

In Halo: New Blood, Buck spends most of the novella telling stories of past events. He occasionally goes off on tangents; in one case, he recalls meeting Spartan-IVs led by Sarah Palmer at the end of one chapter, while the very next chapter begins with another flashback to an even earlier mission where he met Palmer when she was still an ODST.

It alternates between scenes of the protagonists as adults in 1985 and flashbacks to their childhoods in 1958, but these flashbacks contain many additional flashbacks to earlier events. For instance, Ben recalls being attacked by a trio of bullies on the last day of school, and during that memory the younger Ben recalls the first time he encountered Pennywise the Clown months before.

Live Action TV

In the House Of Fools episode "The Wig Affair", Beef mentions how a "rat beaver thing" that stole Bob's wig has lived in the house since their fathers lived there. The show then flashbacks to the seventies, where the "rat beaver thing" steals Bob's father's caramel wafer. Then it flashbacks again to the fifties, with almost identical dialogue, and the rodent steals Vic's grandfather's brisket.

In the Person of Interest episode "Many Happy Returns", a flashback scene of John watching videos of Jessica and Peter flashes back to Peter's encounter with Jessica at the airport in 2006. Because John did not ask her to wait for him, she ends up marrying Peter instead.

In the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Flashback", Tuvok's first flashback to the Excelsior occurs in the middle of the battle with the Klingons and Valtane's death. It then flashes back further to show how the whole mess started.

The Following used flashbacks constantly during the first season. In an episode from that season, "The Fall", Debra's past is revealed in this manner.

Once Upon a Time featured a flashback within a flashback in Season 4 episode Heart of Gold

How I Met Your Mother is full of these. The whole series is a flashback to begin with, so any episode containing a flashback is this.

Newspaper Comics

A variant occurs in a Crankshaft arc: A flash-forward shows Crankshaft as catatonic, confined to a wheelchair, and living in a nursing home. His nurse takes him to see a ballgame, though it was rained out. A flashback occurs within the flash-forward and showed a much younger Crankshaft watching a ballgame, suggesting that he retreated to memories of happy times and was unaware of what is going on now. Later on, the creator would reveal future!Crankshaft to be someone else entirely, leaving readers wondering whether there was misdirection or a retcon.

Professional Wrestling

After Cody Rhodes played The Big Show's embarrassing WrestleMania moments on the Titantron for weeks, Big Show defeats Rhodes at WrestleMania XXVIII. On a subsequent RAW, Big Show, comes out to play a highlight of that match. The next week, he shows a clip of himself showing that clip from last week.

In What Remains of Edith Finch, the main story is a flashback to Edith exploring her family's old house, framed as her son reading her journal about it. While she's in there, she picks up multiple documents that initiate flashbacks into the lives of her other family members, showing how they died.

In One Piece: Grand Line 3.5, Cory makes a quick recap of the comic's "Island of Rare Animals" arc. It occurs twice: the first time, Cory summarizes Phil's recap of everything he missed, and the second time, it turns out a friend is retelling the whole story to Johnny and Yosaku's future players.

In Darths & Droids, when Luke asks Bobba Fett why he seeks revenge on Han Solo, Fett has a flashback to meeting Solo on Cloud City, at which time he had a flashback to his father's death in Episode 2.

Luke: Oh, lord, it's one of these. I'm getting outta here.

Western Animation

In the Dan Vs. episode "Dan Vs. Summer Camp", Chris and Dan recall their time spent in Camp Atrocious, run by the corrupt Mr. Tedesco. During that Whole Episode Flashback, another occurs as Mr. Tedesco explains the camp traditions.

During the main flashback of Transformers Prime's episode "Out of the Past", a flashback to the one from "Predatory" plays, in which Airachnid kills Tailgate.

In the Uncle Grandpa episode "Shower Party", Mr. Gus and Pizza Steve flashback to a previous flashback they had of Uncle Grandpa making a bunch of partygoers leave by accidentally exposing himself in front of them.

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